Commissioners for Miami-Dade county voted 10 to 3 this week in favor of a countywide ordinance to treat marijuana possession offenses involving 20 grams or less as a civil infraction, punishable by a $100 fine -- no arrest, no criminal prosecution, no incarceration, and no criminal record. The new ordinance takes effect late...

Shona Banda suffers from Crohn’s disease, and has found, as have many Crohn’s sufferers, that medical marijuana provides her with effective relief and allows her to manage her illness and live a somewhat normal life. Specifically, Banda uses cannabis oil. The problem is she lives in, Garden City, Kansas, a state that does not...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton publicly announced plans yesterday to halt the NYPD's practice of arresting tens of thousands of minor marijuana offenders annually. Under the new plan, set to take effect November 19, city police would issue first-time marijuana offenders a summons, payable by...

A genuinely early and respected voice against the war on some drugs passed away Friday, September 19 in California. Joe McNamara was a former police chief in Kansas City and San Jose who, in the late 1980s, started to both write and lecture about the need for substantive changes in law enforcement practices (and...

Senate Bill 364, signed into law this past April, amends statewide penalties for marijuana possession offenses involving ten grams or less from a criminal misdemeanor (presently punishable by arrest, up to 90 days in jail, a $500 fine, and a criminal record) to a non-arrestable, non-criminal, fine-only offense ($100 fine for first-time offenders,...